Secrets
by Doctor Foster
Summary: Rouge and Shadow-Thief head for Europe where, under the Brain's supervision they revive a long-forgotten robot. Rita asks Larry an important question.


7

"Secrets"

Mallah sat on the roof of the building in a place where he could enjoy the full strength of the sun. He had his back up against the wall of the elevator workings of the building and seemed to be in a contemplative mood, casting his eyes over the scene in front of him with only the merest movement of his head. He wore ammunition belts over each of his shoulders and there was a Kalashnikov machine-gun on the floor in front of him.

"Do you know what I love about humanity?" he asked but continued without waiting for an answer, "… its never-failing ability to create wondrous weapons. This machine-gun is a thing of beauty, is it not?" He picked it up with one of his enormous hands and cradled it in his other arm. "I truly adore it."

"I'm not really a gun-person," Rouge replied. She was standing in front of Mallah, warily wondering why she had been summoned to such an outlandish meeting place. "For me, it's clothes: I love them. I know it's a gender-typical thing, but still, who am I to fight against my upbringing?"

"Rouge, you were born from a test-tube in the Brain's laboratory and raised to adult-hood over a period of a few years!" Mallah replied. "Even though you have the appearance of an adult and the behaviour of an adult, as of today, you are less than seven years old!"

Rouge placed her hands on her hips: "And your point is?"

Mallah waved his enormous hand in front of her indicating that the time for non-productive niceties was over: "Enough! To business! I have a job for you to carry out," Mallah said. "There is a cavern in the Harz Mountains of Germany near a town called Goslar: I will text you the approximate location. The Brain wants you to retrieve a robot that has been languishing there."

"Ah … the Brain and his robots: why does he love them so?"

"That is a question you must ask of him. This robot was constructed by a man named Pramble. It is a female version of him but built on a gigantic-scale …"

"Sounds to me like a cry-for-help, somebody needing psychiatric help," Rouge chirruped.

"Even so," Mallah agreed. "Travel to Germany, find the robot, and report back as to whether it is still a viable product. We will then decide whether it will be worth our time in retrieving it."

Mallah finished the delivery of his orders with a sneeze.

Rouge flashed the briefest of smiles at the educated ape and without another word left Mallah to his musings.

Rouge resented being sent on errands especially when the orders were given by a gorilla. Their meeting had soured her mood and she scowled at the other pedestrians on the busy sidewalk as she made her way along Fifth Avenue. Her demeanour only improved when she spotted an attractive outfit being worn by a manikin in a shop window. It looked as if it could be no other than Dior, and she was about to take a closer look when she became aware of a hubbub of noise growing from further down the Avenue. People were pointing up at the rooftops and voices of alarm and a few screams could be heard: "There's a gorilla on the roof of that office-block!" "It's King Kong!" She looked upwards and could see Mallah happily leaping and swinging his way from ledge to ledge along the rooftops. She smiled to herself and returned her attention to the Dior ensemble. Rouge was suddenly concerned as to whether she had any shoes to match? Deep down, she knew that there was only one response to that situation: buy shoes as well!

Jessica Harlow's eyes narrowed and the tone of her voice revealed her incredulity: "Do you _know_ anything about robots?"

"I don't have to," Rouge replied. "I have this …" She held up her iphone, "…and the Brain knows all there is to know."

"So why do I have to go as well?" Harlow added.

"Don't you want an all-expenses-paid trip to Germany?"

"Well, since you put it that way, but do we really have to go into a cave?"

Rouge smiled and nodded. "It'll be like _Indiana Jones_."

"Not with the spiders though, right?" Harlow checked.

Rouge shuddered. "Did you have to mention the spiders?"

"No mummies either? … They remind me too much of Trainor."

"There won't be any mummies, of that you can be quite sure."

"Good, mind you, I'm going to need some new clothes if we are travelling abroad," Jessica said.

"Okay," Rouge replied, mystified as to why Harlow was telling her about her shopping needs. "Splash the cash, you can afford it!"

"It's just that I know this place where I can put my hands on dresses the like of which you could hardly imagine. It's not exactly a store in the usual sense of the word, if you know what I mean … I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?"

Rouge considered the offer for a moment: "Sure, why not?" she said. "It could be fun. But I'll have to get my purse."

Jess laughed and winked. "You won't need any money where we're going."

Rouge and Harlow arrived in Berlin a few days later, staying over there for a little retail-therapy before driving south in a rented BMW 5 series saloon. Valentino had fixed them up with a local guide named Max Stern. He was a helpful, thirty-something six-footer who sported a full beard. He was clearly an outdoorsy sort who could quite easily be a poster-boy for mountaineering. He met the two American women in the reception area of the small hotel in which they were staying.

"Have you done much caving before?" he asked, his English being very good.

Both women, clearly quite taken with the handsome German, coquettishly shook their heads at his enquiry.

"Then you will have much to learn," he added.

Rouge and Harlow exchanged glances: "We are in your hands." "The sooner we start the better it'll be!" they said.

"Good. I shall pick you both up at 6:00am tomorrow."

"That's in the morning, right?" Harlow asked.

"Yes, it will be a hard day for you tomorrow, so we should be getting into bed soon, yes?"

The women exchanged glances again.

"Yes, we should, and soon enough," Rouge replied with a sly grin.

So, at six o'clock the next morning, Max Stern led the way up into the mountains above the town. They were all dressed appropriately for hiking and were soon making their way through the deeply wooded valleys and ridges of the Hartz.

"Do you know the caves where we are headed?" Rouge asked Stern.

"Yes, I know of them. They are not natural but the workings of old silver mines. There are many in the area," Stern replied. "We must go away from the usual tourist places. Our cave is very remote."

"What time will we get there?" Rouge asked.

"By mid-afternoon, I think."

And indeed, it was almost four o'clock that afternoon when they came to an almost vertical rock face when Stern announced that they had arrived. At first, neither of the women could see the entrance to the cave for there were many fallen boulders and several thickly growing trees concealing a narrow cleft in the rock-face.

When they looked closer, Harlow observed a distressing feature: "It looks wet," she said.

"Inside the cave it will be quite dry. These drippings are from the mountain above. You must not worry about being moist," Stern said.

Harlow smiled at Stern: "I quite like being wet," she said.

This and other similar line of playful banter between Jessica and Max caused Rouge to heave a sigh of despair. "Can we move on, please? Time is against us."

"Then it is good," Stern added. "I will make you wet, first!" And he playfully pushed Harlow through the water that was falling in front of the cavern. Stern followed Harlow and Rouge came through last.

Inside the cavern, they put on helmets and activated the flash-light attachments to brighten their way. It was indeed, quite dry inside the cavern and they followed the gently sloping tunnel upwards and deep into the heart of the mountain. They passed through several caverns until they came to a chamber which was larger than anything they had previously seen. Here, leaning against a tumble of loose rocks was an enormous figure, a robotic titan: it was Pramble's robot.

"That's it, right?" Harlow asked hesitantly.

"Yes, that's it," Rouge replied.

"But what is it?" Stern asked.

The robot was humanoid and strangely female in appearance. The remains of clothing, now nothing more than tattered rags, lie everywhere like blue and red bunting or ribbons. The grotesqueness of the situation was completed by the remains of plastic, synthetic skin which had also fallen away from the metallic hide of the robot.

"This does not look good," Harlow said picking through the debris to reach the robot's metal hide. "It's in quite a state."

"I agree, though there is no sign of rust," Rouge added.

"It is very dry in this cave. If it was made from good German steel then there will be no rust," Stern explained.

"Okay, let's see if I can get the Brain on this super-duper iphone." She pulled out the device that the Brain had given her and opened up a channel so that they could communicate. Almost immediately, an image of the Brain, perched on top of his metallic pillar in the monitor-room appeared on the iphone's screen.

Cutting immediately to the chase, the Brain asked: "Have you found the robot?"

"Yes, see for yourself." Rouge turned the phone so that the Brain could see the reclining robot.

"Closer, closer!" the Brain yelled excitedly. "How does it look?"

"Wrecked, it looks wrecked!" Rouge replied.

"Nonsense! Get me closer." Rouge stretched out her arm holding the phone so that it was much closer to the robot. The Brain then announced: "I must see, there, under that loose panel covering the robot's thorax!" Rouge held the camera wherever the Brain directed until he had seen enough. "I am pleased! The robot is recoverable."

"Are you sure?" Harlow asked. "It really looks like shit!"

The Brain reacted to Harlow's pronouncement with fury: "Who said that? Do you doubt the validity of my examination?" Rouge pointed the camera at Harlow.

"Rouge, who is that?"

"It's Jessica Harlow, the Shadow-Thief, you remember her?"

"Why is _she_ with you? She has let us down in the past!"

"I thought that her power to be able to get into all sort of places would be useful to us."

"And what does she know of robotics?" the Brain demanded.

"Why, nothing!" Rouge explained. "Of course she does not doubt _your_ great knowledge of robotics or what you say to be a given fact. It's only that the robot does look … well … like shit!"

"We shall see," the Brain replied somewhat mollified by Rouge's words. "My scientific knowhow and your exquisitely prehensile hands will work a scientific miracle! Multi-Woman shall be revived!"

Over the next few days, the two women and their German helper brought the Brain's advanced scientific equipment to the cavern and began the process of repairing the giant robot. Between them and under the Brain's remote guidance they were able to provide sufficient power to bring the robot to life. Even so, Multi-Woman seemed unable to respond to any of their stimuli.

"It does not make any sense," the Brain complained. "The machine is fully functional and yet it does not respond!"

"There was a girl in my year at school who was just like that," Harlow said.

"What happened to her?" Stern asked.

"Her psychiatrist put her on a course of uppers," Harlow replied. "She was much better after that!"

"She was depressed?" Rouge asked.

"Robots do not get depressed!" The Brain retorted.

"I was just saying …" Harlow added letting the sentence die away without further comment.

Rouge looked at the comatose robot more critically: "The robot chose to hide itself away in an old deserted mine … That says something. It could be depressed."

"Robots do not get depressed!" the Brain repeated.

"But you did say that Multi-Woman was given a very human personality."

An hour later after no further progress had been achieved, the Brain finally said: "If Multi-Woman had been imprinted to follow Pramble's orders and no-one else, then it is logical that his appearance here could jar the robot into activity."

"Where is Pramble?" Rouge asked.

"There is no current trace of him. He could really be dead," the Brain replied.

"What do we do now then?" Harlow asked.

"Rouge, you must impersonate Pramble and convince Multi-Woman that you are him," explained the Brain.

"You will impersonate a man? I find this hard to accept. You are far too attractive," Stern said, much to Rouge's pleasure.

"What does Pramble look like?" Rouge asked the Brain.

Almost immediately, an image of Duncan Pramble appeared In place of the Brain's image on the iphone. Pramble's head was domed and enlarged far beyond that of anyone's normal appearance whereas his body seemed shrunken and far too puny and small to support such a heavy weight.

"He is not what I expected," Rouge said.

"Pramble was unique: each time he was killed he was reborn with additional super-powers – hence his appellation of Multi-Man," the Brain explained. "Only someone of _your_ unique ability could carry-off the impersonation of such a being."

Rouge considered the picture of Pramble on the phone: she rotated the image on the screen so that she could see it from every angle. As she studied it Jess Harlow looked over her shoulder.

"Can you do it?" Harlow asked.

Rouge smiled and slowly the shape of her head changed, growing in size and altering its shape until she had the exact copy of Pramble's face. She then began work on her body and reduced it in size so that her clothing hung loosely about her frame.

"I have never…" Max Stern said in astonishment as he watched Rouge's transformation. "I take back what I said earlier. You are able to look like a man, even one as strange looking as this Herr Pramble!"

"Don't worry Max," Rouge answered. "It's only temporary and I can also look like any woman that you've ever dreamed of!"

"You can look like them, but you are not them," Harlow insisted. "It's not the same!"

Rouge smiled at Harlow's attempt to unsuccessfully score a point. The next time she spoke she even sounded just like Pramble. She spoke directly to the inert robot: "I am here now. You must awaken!"

They waited for signs of a response but none were immediately apparent. Rouge continued: "Wake up! Your creator has returned!"

Slowly, the robot's head pivoted to look at Rouge's disguised face. Then, without breaking the contact between them it slowly rose to a sitting position.

"I have waited for you." The robot's voice was a flat monotone without any indication of gender.

"Good," Rouge replied carefully as she was suddenly very aware of the robot's imposing size. "I am pleased."

"I am pleased to see you too," the robot replied. I have missed you."

"Missed me …?" Rouge asked, hesitantly.

"Yes." The robot's voice slowly developed a more human-sounding tone as if old and un-used circuits were re-imposing a previous personality. "Why did you leave me?" The robot rose from its seated position to stand imposingly before Rouge. At the sight of this, Harlow and Stern slowly backed away although Rouge held her ground.

"It was necessary," Rouge replied.

The robot persisted: "Why was it necessary?"

"I … I …" Rouge began but hesitated before saying anything further. The pause allowed the robot to jump in: "You abandoned me so I came here where I would be safe."

"Yes. That was the right thing to do and now I have returned to rescue you. Together, we can leave this cave and return to the surface."

"We can resume our lives together," the robot added.

"Yes, we can." Rouge replied.

"I think the robot loves Rouge," Harlow hissed as an aside to Stern.

However, this was overheard by the robot: "Who is Rouge?" it demanded closing in on Harlow.

Under the unblinking gaze of the robot's eyes, Harlow blurted her reply to the robot. "Nobody! Rouge is someone else. She's not here!"

"Do not worry about Rouge," Rouge added.

"I do not _love_ Rouge!"

"She's not here!" Harlow repeated trying unsuccessfully to sound blasé.

The robot's gaze passed over Harlow, Stern and then narrowed-in on Rouge. "Your chromosomal patterns do not match my database. You are an imposter. You are not Duncan Pramble!" It suddenly seemed very menacing.

"Run everyone!" Harlow screamed. Stern and Rouge reacted to Harlow's prompt and sped back down the tunnel towards the exit of the cave system. Harlow though, remained exactly where she was but changed into her shadow-form to watch what the robot did next.

Rouge – now returned to her usual appearance - and Max Stern, did not need to stay and watch what it did next: they could easily hear it pursuing them down the narrow tunnel that led to the outside world. "Don't stop to check on me," Rouge yelled, urging Stern onwards. "Just keep running!"

They didn't stop running even when they emerged into the open but continued at a helter-skelter pace down the hillside. Surprisingly though, Multi-Woman stopped on reaching the first piece of open ground outside of the cave and stood still as if it was suddenly receiving new instructions. This hiatus allowed Rouge and Stern time to put a good distance between their pursuer and themselves. Only then did they pause to regain their breath.

"That was not fun," Stern said eventually.

"Oh I don't know," Rouge replied. "Makes you feel good to be alive, don't you think?" She smiled at Max.

"Oh, _ja_. I am pleased to be alive alright. But what about Jessica, we have left her behind?"

"She'll be fine: don't you worry about her."

"I think you and she have issues, _ja_?"

"No, not at all: everything is fine between us as long as she understands that she has to take orders from me!"

"And me? I have to take orders from you?"

Rouge smiled again: "Oh, yes," she replied.

Max was grinning: "I see. I look forward to that."

Further discussion was momentarily paused as Multi-Woman, having received a radio-message of some sort, suddenly sprouted wings from its shoulders and with a mighty leap, took off into the air. It ascended rapidly and was soon out of sight.

Rouge watched it disappear and then re-opened her telephone channel to the Brain. "The robot has just chased us out of the cave and has taken off. It's flying, somewhere!"

"Yes, I am aware of that. It is under my control. Pramble may have thought he was a genius in creating the robot but he is not the Brain. As part of the restoration you did under my supervision, you attached the connector allowing me to control Multi-Woman. I see through its eyes. My thoughts are its thoughts. I am Multi-Woman!"

Rouge closed the telephone link and turned to Stern who was patiently watching and listening to what had just happened. "The mission has been completed, successfully," she smiled. "So … what can a lonely girl do in Goslar?"

It was Max's turn to smile now. "I can think of something …" he replied.

Jessica Harlow, meanwhile, unobserved while still in her shadow-form, followed Rouge and Max back to the town of Goslar. She watched as Rouge led Max up to her hotel room and slipped under the door remaining unseen to watch exactly what was going on between them.

Later, Rouge and Max lay side-by-side in bed and watched a live news-report from America on the small television-set. They watched with interest as Multi-Woman – still controlled by the Brain – was followed by TV crews as it rampaged across industrial New Jersey. The situation was quickly brought under control however when Green Lantern appeared on the scene and imprisoned the giant robot in a green energy bubble. He then transported it to a lonely planetoid in the outermost part of the solar system where he released the robot, leaving it to roam free across the desolate rock, before returning to Earth.

When the news-flash reverted to a German soap-opera, Max's attention returned to Rouge. "Was that part of the Brain's plan?" he asked.

"I don't think so," Rouge replied.

Max studied Rouge's expression for a moment. "Does it bother you that all our effort over the last week has resulted in … nothing?"

"Does it bother you?" Rouge replied.

"No, I have been paid and I have met you," he said brightly.

"You're sweet." She stroked his cheek as her manner became pensive: "I'll be going back to America soon."

"I know, and I will stay here. But if you ever return to Germany …"

"I'll be sure to look you up," she said laughing.

"Good. I look forward to it."

They then returned to their amorous activities once again. Suddenly though, from out of the shadows came a voice: "Oh, brother!"

Rouge and Max's attention suddenly turned to the side wall near the wardrobe.

"Get a room!" Jess sighed as – still in shadow-form - she stepped out of the darkness at the back of the room.

"We have a room!" Rouge snapped. "And you're in it! Get out!"

"How does she do that?" Max demanded.

"Ah, calm down!" Jess replied to Max. "You're not my type, anyway!" She then walked to the door and slipped underneath it.

"How long do you think she was watching?" Max was still outraged.

"Long enough," Rouge muttered.

Rita and Larry lie side-by-side on top of Rita's bed, arms by their sides, barely touching, both gazing up at the ceiling. Rita had taken off her dress and was just wearing her underwear and slip while Larry was only wearing a pair of shorts over his bandages.

Without turning her head, Rita broke the long silence: "Can I ask you something personal?"

"Now seems like a perfect time," Larry replied casually.

"Several of my dresses seem to have just disappeared from my wardrobe: you haven't taken them, have you?"

Larry replied calmly that he hadn't.

"It's okay if you have … I could live with that … But I'd like to know, that's all."

"No, I haven't taken any of your dresses."

"Okay."

After a brief pause, Larry continued: "Have you asked your cleaner?"

"Yes. She said she hadn't and I believe her."

"Not me either," Larry confirmed

Rita remained silent for a few seconds. "It was just a thought," she said eventually.

[END]


End file.
